When He Sleeps
by madwarringinvenice
Summary: Stories filled with the stoic ninja you all love showing a soft side. Filled with cuteness, funnies, and loveXD! Neji: chapter 1 Gaara: chapter 2. Mild NejiTen in first chapter. Sand sibling love in second chapter.
1. Chapter 1

When He Sleeps

I do _**NOT**_ own Naruto. And there you have it!

Hinata knocked on Neji's bedroom door one morning, hoping he would be awake by now. She needed a training partner and he was the only one available. With that thought, to say she was surprised would be an understatement when her sister Hanabi opened the door to her cousin's room.

"Hanabi, what are you-?" Hinata began.

"SHH!!! Be quiet, Hinata!!" her sister whispered.

"What are you doing, Hanabi?" Hinata asked, whispering now.

"I was going to wake up Neji for breakfast but I don't think I can anymore," Hanabi explained in a hushed voice.

"Why not?"

"I'll show you," the younger Hyuuga said, pointing over her shoulder. Hanabi led her older sister inside the room and over to the bed, where Neji was still sleeping soundly. Hanabi smiled and pointed to their sleeping cousin. Hinata just returned her look with one of confusion. Hanabi quietly put her palm to her forehead in aggravation.

"Look at him!" she whispered urgently. Hinata, though still confused, followed her sister's orders. Staring at her older cousin, she finally realized what Hanabi was taking about. She almost started giggling. He was so CUTE when he was asleep!

His hair was slightly tangled and spread out around his head in a haphazard manner. He had kicked the blankets off so you could see his entire body spread out lazily across the bed. The T-shirt he was wearing was riding up, exposing his stomach while his sweat pants had started sliding down, revealing the waistband of his sky blue boxers.

Hinata looked over at her sister, grinning widely. Hanabi smiled back. Hinata was about to whisper something to her when there was another knock at the door. Hanabi quietly ran back to the door and threw it open to reveal Kiba and Shino. Hanabi had already clamped a hand over Kiba's mouth, silencing him. She put a finger to her lips, telling them both to be quiet. They nodded and looked at their teammate, confused. Hinata just smiled.

Hanabi had removed her hand from Kiba's mouth and was waving them inside, with a huge smile on her face. They followed her inside the bedroom to stand next to the bed. Kiba took one look at Neji and almost lost it. He put his hand over his mouth to keep the sound from escaping. Shino said and did nothing, but you could sense the smile he was trying to hide.

After a few minutes of watching Neji sleep, yet another knock was heard at the door. This time Kiba was the one to run quietly for the door. When it opened, Tenten and Lee were standing in his view. Knowing that both of them could be loud if they wanted to, Kiba used both of his hands to silence them. Hinata and Hanabi helped him out by putting their fingers to their lips as a signal to be silent. Nodding, they followed Kiba into the room and stood next to Hinata and her sister.

Tenten took one look at her teammate and she was sure that her face was heating up and that everyone in the room could feel her heartbeat. Neji looked adorable! How someone as cold and uncaring as Neji could look like this when he was asleep was beyond her. His hands had positioned themselves just so. One was under the pillow, supporting his head, while the other was curled into a gentle fist (1) and was pulled up close to his face. If you looked at him just right, you would think he was sucking his thumb. She let out a mental fangirl scream as little pink hearts appeared in her eyes.

Lee on the other hand had just cocked his head to the side and looked at his teammate in confusion. He wasn't thoroughly convinced that he was looking at Neji. The Neji he knew was hard, cold and sometimes cruel. This Neji looked soft, gentle and somewhat vulnerable. But even if he didn't want to, Lee had to say that Neji did look awfully peaceful when he was sleeping. He may even venture to say childlike. But Lee's train of thought was disturbed because the thought of childlike led to youth. And then Lee just spent the next few minutes staring at Neji with little fireballs in his eyes, mentally raving about youth.

Just then, Neji started moving, as if he was waking up. Although the little sounds he made while he was waking were just as adorable as him sleeping, the 6 children in the room didn't have time to ponder over it. They all turned tail and, although quietly, sprinted out of the room like a bat out of hell(2), Tenten sneaking one last look at her adorable teammate as they ran through the halls of the Hyuuga mansion.

Once outside, they all started laughing, all except for Shino (what a stick in the mud). And they kept running until they were sure that Neji wasn't running after them, hell-bent on ripping them limb from limb.

Meanwhile back at the mansion, Neji had a confused look on his face as he listened to the last sounds of people running for their lives away from the compound. Neji ran a hand through his hair before getting out of bed.

_I wonder what all the noise was about, _he thought as he walked across his room to the bathroom.

~*~

**(1)- NO PUN INTENDED!!!**

**(2)- I've just always wanted to use that phrase! XD**

**And there you have it! Just a short little thing I thought of when I woke up one morning. I honestly do think that Neji would be adorable in his sleep.**

**PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!!! **


	2. Chapter 2

When He Sleeps

Chapter 2

I do NOT own Naruto. I'm pretty sure we've been through this…

Temari walked through the halls of the house she shared with her siblings. The halls were quiet and the moon was shining through the windows, giving some light to the otherwise black hallway. She had been taking care of some late mission reports for her brother, Gaara, because God knows he was overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork that came along with the title of Kazekage.

_'I'm not normally one to complain, but I do know that these 12 inch stacks of paper were never in my job description,_' she remembered Gaara saying to her. That had been one of the only jokes her stoic brother had ever made. She inwardly laughed at the fond memory as she continued on her way.

She passed by Kankuro's room, seeing the door was slightly ajar. Temari silently opened it to look at her brother passed out on the bed. She sighed with slight exasperation. Kankuro could really sleep deeply for a ninja. It never failed to amuse her.

Closing the door, Temari continued two paces down the hall and opened the door to her youngest brother's room. Ever since the Akatsuki had taken the Shukaku from him, he had finally been able to sleep like a normal human being. He still had trouble from time to time falling asleep, but now he didn't have to worry about the sand demon taking over as he slept. Temari peered inside at her brother's bed and nearly gasped.

Gaara had fallen asleep on his still perfectly made bed, just passing out on top of the tan comforter. He was still wearing his blue Kazekage robes, but his hat had been tossed carelessly to the floor. The red head was snoring softly and his calm, deep breaths were bouncing off of the raised collar of his robes, gently teasing his hair. The fact that he was hugging a soft, white pillow to his chest just completed the picture of innocence.

Temari had both of her hand covering her mouth in an attempt to keep her voice from coming out and disturbing this perfect picture of serenity. This image, right here, was one that was worth preserving. Too bad a photograph would wake him up and she had no access to a decent sketch artist at this time of night. At the very least, she would have to tell someone. Just to have someone to talk to about such a cute memory.

Tip-toeing out of the room, she rushed the short distance to Kankuro's room, silently threw open the door, and nearly pounced on her completely unsuspecting brother. She bounced on his back, waking him up quite effectively. He rolled over and hissed several obscene phrases at his smiling sister, before she clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Just shut up and come with me. You need to see this!" she whispered, smiling widely. Kankuro glanced at the clock. He turned and scowled at her.

"At four in the morning?! Are you kidding me?!?" Kankuro hissed, obviously pissed.

"Trust me. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!" Temari insisted. She forcefully pulled her fuming brother off his bed and dragged him as quietly as she could down the hall to Gaara's room.

Before entering, Temari raised a finger to her lips, signaling for Kankuro to be silent. He yawned, but nodded. Temari smiled again and pushed Gaara's door open wider. Leading Kankuro inside, she pointed to the bed where their red headed brother was sleeping.

Kankuro looked shocked at first, but soon he smiled and looked at Temari with a knowing grin. Even he never would have guessed that Gaara could look so innocent. Temari had been right when she had told him it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Suddenly, Gaara stirred. Kankuro acted immediately by grabbing Temari's arm and dragging her out of the room, down the hall, and outside their home. Once they were outside, the two elder Sabaku siblings began giggling uncontrollably.

The next morning, Gaara came downstairs to see his siblings asleep at the kitchen table. Both of them had huge smiles plastered to their faces, even in sleep. Gaara rolled his kohl lined eyes and continued on his way to the Kazekage tower.

"I'm not sure I even want to know," Gaara said to himself as he left the house.

At the sound of the door closing, Temari and Kankuro slowly woke up. They took one look at each other and laughed. Partly for the silent spectacle their little brother had put on last night, partly for the red marks on their cheeks from lying against the hard wooden table for so long.

Temari and Kankuro finally stood up, stretching to relieve some of the stress on their sore muscles, and went upstairs to change. Temari was smiling all the way, even while trying to rub some feeling back into her cheek.

Kankuro, in addition to rubbing his sore cheek, also had to clean the drool that had escaped onto the table before heading upstairs. His mind wandered and he finally settled that he should have just risked it and taken a picture. He would probably have to spend the rest of his life running, but it would be worth it to have tangible documentation of this of this ever-so-precious memory.

**Behold!!! My latest spark of stupidity!!!**

**This is actually dedicated to my sister. She loves Gaara and wanted a fic like the one I wrote for Neji. And me being the kind and loving sister that I am, generously degraded her favorite character with my crappy writing!!**

**PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!!!!!!! I MEAN IT!!!!!!!**

**Now I'm only going to say this once: if you have a character that you think would be cuter in sleep than awake and would like to see that happen, feel free to message me and I'll see if I can pull something together that will suffice. **


	3. Chapter 3

When He Sleeps

I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS!

**This one was suggested by and is dedicated to experiment13. I decided to give the Akatsuki the benefit of a doubt when it came to cuteness. Forgive me if I destroyed the image of your favorite character with my writing, but this is what my mind came up with on this one. Let the madness begin!**

**:~*~:**

"How many tailed beasts do we have left to find?" asked an orange haired man in a long black cloak. He turned to the blue haired woman at his side. She met his eyes silently before replying.

"Three. We need to find the three tails, the six tails, and the nine tails. Deidara and Tobi will be heading out first light to locate the three tails and I believe that Kakazu and Hidan have learned the relative whereabouts of the six tails, but more information is required before we take action," she said calmly.

"Good, we are almost ready to make our move on the world," the orange haired man said, almost to himself.

"Pein, I had a question," the woman said.

"What is it then, Konan?" the man, Pein, asked his comapanion.

"How many Akatsuki members are actually here in the base right now?" Pein paused.

"All of them, as far as I am aware. Why?" he asked, puzzled.

Konan smirked. "I was reading this article a while back and it said that you can tell a lot about a person just by watching their sleeping habits. Such as whether they talk in their sleep, move around a lot, drool on their pillows, et cetera. It made me wonder what I could gather from the other members of the organization," she explained. (1)

Pein shook his head. "Well, go ahead and conduct your study. I'm going to bed now. Just try not to wake anyone and get killed," he warned as he walked down the hall and out of sight.

Konan smiled slightly. Using her unique paper jutsu, she summoned a sheet of paper with all the names of the members of Akatsuki listed. She pulled out a pen from the folds of her cloak and began her rounds through the base.

It was going to be a fun night.

:~*~:

Konan decided on just starting at one end of the base and going all the way through to the other side. She could easily hit all the rooms on her trip across the base. She read through her list one last time to make sure she hadn't forgotten anyone. Satisfied with her list, she stopped at the first door.

Hidan's room. His door was decorated with only his name plate and a small Jashin symbol that he had carved into the wood with a kunai. Taking a deep breath and masking her chakra, Konan silently opened the door and entered the dark room.

Once inside, the faint light from the hall illuminated the walls just enough to make them easy to make out. His walls were covered in pages with nothing drawn on them but the crest for Jashinism. His floor was also littered with torture devices of various kinds, ranging from knives and spears to random pieces of jagged metal. If that wasn't enough of a clue to his personality, Konan was more focused on the man in the bed.

He had his eyes closed tightly and his brow furrowed in a way that made him look like he was having a nightmare. That was what Konan would have assumed if not for the smile that was plastered on his sleeping face. He also turned in his sleep a lot. She was getting slightly distracted by the way his muscles flexed over his bare chest while he turned. Suddenly, his legs kicked out, taking his blankets with them. Konan blushed scarlet and rushed from his room, closing the door silently behind her. She had now unintentionally established that Hidan preferred to sleep nude.

Pushing her discomfort to the back of her mind, Konan scribbled a few things down on her list next to Hidan's name and continued down the hall.

The next room she came to was Tobi's. His door also had a name plate, but underneath it was a sheet of paper with a drawing of a stick figure with an enormous smile on its face. Konan smiled lightly at his attempt at artwork, that she was sure that Deidara had given him a lesson on, and opened the door.

Tobi's room was brightly colored, unlike the other bedrooms in the base. Instead of black or red paint on the walls, his walls were a vibrant yellow. He had filled up the space on these yellow slabs of concrete with little drawings similar to the one he had taped to his door, his childish nature shining through in the design of his room.

Turning her attention to the one who owned the room, she saw Tobi curled up on the bed with his back facing her. His orange mask was on the nightstand and Konan felt the urge to get closer and get a good look at his face. But she pushed the urge down and focused on Tobi's back instead.

It appeared that he liked to sleep curled into a tight ball, clutching onto his pillow in an insanely innocent gesture. He didn't move around much, but he did breathe deeply, creating a kind of snoring sound.

"Tobi's…mmm…good boy…" Tobi said in a hushed, sleep heavy voice. Konan smiled and left the room. After closing the door, she scribbled a couple more notes on her page. She finished her note and continued once again.

The next door she came to made her slightly anxious. This was Zetsu's room. He was one of the few members that she didn't really understand at all and didn't feel safe in the same room with him unless Pein was with her. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she turned the knob and entered his room.

To say she was surprised by the sight that greeted her would be an understatement. Zetsu was asleep as far as she could tell, which was not an obvious observation considering that Zetsu was sitting in the center of his room, on the floor. Confused as she was, she decided that Zetsu wasn't all that worthy of writing much about. Other than the fact that he slept sitting upright in the middle of his floor, his walls were bare, you could not see his face, and he was fully clothed. He didn't even seem to be breathing. So Konan left the room.

Once outside, she jotted down that he slept in the middle of the floor, that being the only thing of any interest with him. Konan rolled her eyes at the sheer boredom that Zetsu presented and continued on her way.

The next room she came to put a little hope in her eyes. Kakuzu's room. She smiled silently and entered.

His grey walls were littered with reward posters. There was even a bingo book on the desk of some of the people with the biggest prices on their heads. Now she could see why Pein had put him in charge of the organization's finances. Turning her attention to Kakuzu, she began her observations.

Kakuzu slept flat on his back, with his arms at his sides. He was still wearing his mask too. The only thing that moved was his fingers. They were twitching on top of the covers, as if he was still counting money in his sleep.

She had realized something at this point. Most of the members that she had seen at this point had a soft side that you could only see when they were asleep. Kakuzu just seemed to be the exception to that rule. He was so serious, even in sleep. What a bore.

At least that was what Konan thought until the man in the bed yawned in his sleep. She saw the fabric of his mask stretch as his mouth opened. She also noted that his voice was higher and it sounded more his age. His voice was always so deep and frightening when he was awake. Now he sounded normal. What a relief. She left, repeated the action of scribbling down notes, and left.

_On to the next room,_ she thought with a little more pep in her step. (2)

The next room Konan came to was one of the few rooms that was different even when you were just standing at the door. The name plate read _Kisame, _and his door had been painted over with a deep, ocean blue. He obviously favored the color enough to go outside protocol and paint his door a different color. Konan smiled slightly at his boldness and entered his room.

Like his door, his walls were painted blue. He had a desk in his room that was home to an array of sword care supplies. The aforementioned weapon was leaning against the wall, still covered in bandages.

Konan brought her attention to the larger-than-average man in the bed. He was sleeping on his side. His broad shoulders making the mattress sag under his weight. Kisame looked a lot less threatening in his sleep. He was breathing deeply, but softly. He moaned lightly in his sleep and rubbed his face against the pillow he was clutching lightly to, ruffling his blue hair.

Konan felt that she had run her hand through his hair and smooth out the strands of hair that were sticking up due to static electricity which had caught in his hair while he had been adorably rubbing his face against the pillow.

She could feel a smile crossing her face. She had finally found a member of this organization that slept _normally_. No twitching fingers, strange sleeping locations, or nudity. What a relief.

Turning away from the sleeping blue-skinned man, the paper wielding woman left the room to continue her 'research'.

Turning a corner, Konan came upon Deidara's room. Somewhat like Tobi, he had a drawing taped to his door. It looked like a drawing of what he called his masterpiece, his C-4 bomb. While it was accurate, she could see why Deidara had chosen to keep sculpture as his medium. The lines were slightly askew and had many different widths with little to no shading. With a small smile, she opened the door.

Once the door was open, Konan stopped dead in her tracks. The floor was covered in small white sculptures. She had absolutely no way of telling if any of them were explosive or not. She took careful, measured steps to the middle of the room so she could get a good look at her blonde co-worker.

His hair was let down and strewn across the pillow. She could see that it had tangled as he turned. Maybe it was a habit that he had adopted from being forced into a partnership with Tobi, but Konan could see that Deidara was one of those people that moved and rolled a lot in his sleep. Then, another thought dawned on her. Konan realized that Deidara looked awfully young when he was sleeping. He looked like a teenager… and it suited him.

While she was thinking, the blonde young man in the bed murmured quietly in his sleep, curling in further on himself and bringing his hand up closer to his face.

_Awww… _Konan mentally cooed. Deidara had always been one of the less threatening members of the organization. With a small smile on her face, she left the room before her unconscious co-worker did something that would make her blow her cover.

Konan checked over her list while walking on to the next room. She had gathered a lot of information from just spending a few minutes in each room. This was great. Now she could understand why people liked doing experiments like this. The results were always interesting and, dare she say it, amusing. With the smile that seemed to be making itself more at home on her face throughout the course of the night, she stopped outside the next room.

This room belonged to none other than Itachi Uchiha. Konan tensed up a bit. Other than Pein, Itachi had the best senses of anyone in the base, especially when he felt he was being watched. Well, she had come this far. She couldn't stop now. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door.

The room wasn't what she had expected it to be. The room was a warm maroon color and smelled slightly of incense. It was clean and neat, which was to be expected, but there were also pictures on the walls, which was not so expected. Upon closer inspection, she could see that they were drawings. Sketches of people or places that he had apparently seen somewhere on his missions.

She had always known that Itachi was different. He seemed to avoid a fight whenever possible. He was strong, there was no doubt about that, but he was also deep. He was never a cold-blooded killer like she was sure the bingo books of the hidden villages made him out to be. She was sure now. Itachi was a pacifist. A pacifist that had a soft spot for drawing. She smiled again.

Turning to the man in the bed, Konan gave him a once over. He was on his side, much like his partner was, bare-chested, and had his midnight colored hair strewn across the pillow. His breathing was even and gentle. And like Deidara, he looked a lot younger when he was sleeping. The hard lines on his face seemed to soften and he looked at peace with the world.

Then he suddenly took in a sharp breath and rolled onto his back. His arms clutched at the blanket at his chest while his face scrunched up in discomfort. Itachi moaned lightly and tossed his head to the side. He was having a nightmare. The untouchable Itachi Uchiha was having a nightmare.

This was a cold splash of reality for Konan. She was reminded that they were all still human. No matter how much you tried to defy it and get stronger, even the mightiest of titans were subject to fear. With this thought she sighed silently and turned.

Sparing one last glance at the subconsciously fussing Uchiha, and resisting the urge to go and comfort him, Konan left the room before he could wake up.

She was making her way back to her own room to retire for the night, when a thought popped into her head. With a devious smirk, she sped up her pace and made her way to one last room.

Konan now stood in front of the last bedroom in the base, other than her own. This was Pein-sama's room. She had been unable to resist the thought of watching her leader deep in sleep. She knew he was sleeping now. She had known him for years and even though he was strong, he was never one to stay up late. Again, too great of a chance to pass up.

Pushing open the door, she stepped into the immaculate bedroom of her leader. The walls were painted red and were bare for the most part. The only thing on the walls that she could see was a picture of himself, Konan, and another childhood friend when they were children. Konan felt her insides drop at the sight of that picture. It had been taken years ago, before the third boy in the photo had died. She fought the painful memories and glanced at her leader in the bed.

He was sleeping bare-chested on this night, so she could see all the piercings protruding from his body. She had not known this, but Pein was also one of the people that moved a lot in his sleep. He was rolling over every couple of minutes, seemingly uncomfortable. She watched him for a few minutes before smiling and leaving the room.

Shutting the door silently behind her, Konan walked back to her own room to retire for the night, but before she could sleep she had one last thing to take care of. Once the door to her room had been closed, the rustling of paper could be faintly heard from the other side.

:~*~:

Pein walked down the hall toward the kitchen the next morning. As he got closer, he could hear the sound of arguing voices, and upon entering the kitchen he saw Hidan, Tobi, Deidara, and Kisame gathered around the counter. Itachi and Kakuzu were leaning against the wall and Zetsu was nowhere to be found, as usual. Deidara looked up at Pein and instantly started yelling.

"Leader-sama! What the hell is this?" the blonde bomber yelled.

"Stop yelling, Deidara. What's wrong?" Pein asked in his calm voice.

"These were laid out on the counter this morning! What do they mean?" he explained. Pein calmly walked over the stand next to the fuming blonde.

On the countertop, were several little packets. All were stapled neatly and had the names of each of the different Akatsuki member written on them. Pein picked up the one that had Tobi's name on it and flipped open the first page. Inside was a picture, or sketch rather, of Tobi. He had his back facing the artist and was curled up on his bed. Flipping the page again, there was a page long report about the drawing. It said:

**Tobi has habits of curling in on himself while in sleep. He doesn't seem to move around much but does have moments where he will mumble incoherently in his sleep. I believe that this means that while he is indeed a grown man, he has trouble letting go of childish tendencies. His room design further displays this. And while he may not be the most mature, he certainly provides a little bit of pep where ever he goes.**

**Tobi: childlike, hyper, and dare I say, huggable.**

Each of the other packets followed this format, with a title page, a sketch, and what looked like a description of the mentioned person's sleeping habits. Pein was shocked at first, but then calmed down. He knew who had done this and they hadn't meant anything wrong by it. Pein would know, he had known this person for years, after all.

"Well, what do you make of it?" Kisame asked.

"Whoever the hell they were, they must have been pretty damn strong to sneak into the base, and get into all of our rooms without us noticing!" Hidan added, fuming.

"I don't understand why you are getting so bent out of shape. Whoever they were, they didn't do us any harm. Knowing that they could sneak in like this, that is a plus in our favor," Itachi commented from across the room.

"They wrote down things that they had no right to disclose!" Deidara yelled. "Mine said that I had a tendency to roll a lot in my sleep while making small noises, which apparently suggests that I either have subconscious fears that come out while I'm sleeping or that I am physically incapable of getting 'comfortably situated' on my current mattress!" he yelled, holding up his fingers to form quotation marks in the air.

"Did you have a point with this?" Itachi asked, undeterred by Deidara's screaming. Just as he was about to scream back, Pein interrupted.

"Whoever did this, I don't think they meant any harm. They probably just wanted to show us that even within the confines of this organization, we remain human. Sad as it may seem, it's the truth."

"Yeah, but-," Kisame began, but was cut off.

"I don't really see how this matters much. We are still an organization, and while we still stand, so does our goal. Deidara and Tobi, I want you to leave as soon as possible to retrieve that Jinnchuriki. No more time to dawdle on this. Now go," Pein said, the note of finality in his voice not leaving any room for questions.

The other members quickly dispersed and Pein quickly gathered up the packets and left the room. He was going to find Konan and go over these 'discoveries' with her.

:~*~:

**Well, there you have it. The third chapter in this pathetic excuse of a story. This one was way longer than the others. But what are you gonna do when you have to go over the sleeping habits of nine S-rank criminals? Before I start ranting, I'm going to go over the footnotes.**

**(1)- Don't ask me where Konan got this mysterious reading material. It just fit into the plot!**

**(2)- Yes, Konan is still capable of using a little bit of 'pep' to get through life with all these strange people.**

**And there you go. Now you know what to do! Read and Review!**


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